We hear a lot about barbarism and backwardness and bloodthirstiness among the nations of the Middle East, where violent religious extremists are praised and supported — and often hold state power. A lot of this is hype and misinformation, of course, but sometimes it’s all too true. From the Guardian:

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday. …

The soldier, who has only been identified as “Captain R”, was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago.

The manner of Iman’s killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was “scared to death”, made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.

… The military court cleared the soldier of illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and perverting the course of justice by asking soldiers under his command to alter their accounts of the incident. …

The army’s official account said that Iman was shot for crossing into a security zone carrying her schoolbag which soldiers feared might contain a bomb. It is still not known why the girl ventured into the area but witnesses described her as at least 100 yards from the military post which was in any case well protected.

A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.
In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post’s operations room and describes Iman as “a little girl” who was “scared to death”. After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot. ….

Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body.

On the tape, Capt R then “clarifies” to the soldiers under his command why he killed Iman: “This is commander. Anything that’s mobile, that moves in the [security] zone, even if it’s a three-year-old, needs to be killed.”

At no point did the Israeli troops come under attack.

Well, at least they didn’t stone her, did they? After all, Israel is a “bastion of Western civilization” in the midst of all those swarthy savages, isn’t it? I mean, can there possibly be a clearer expression of civilization — especially its ultra-modern Western version — than Captain R’s Aristotelian formulation? It bears repeating — nay, memorizing, searing deeply into the brain and heart — for it is clearly the guiding principle of all our glorious terror-fighting democracies today, not only plucky little Israel but also its patron and paymaster, the United States (and the lackey Limeys who trot along at Washington’s heels):

Anything that’s mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it’s a three-year-old, needs to be killed.

Even if it’s a three-year-old.

Even if it — this thing, this object, this Other, this creature, this piece of shit — is a three-year-old.

Kill it. It needs to be killed. Kill it. You need to kill it. A three-year-old? Kill it. It needs to be killed.

Now that, my friends, is civilization.

***

UPDATE: Here’s another shining example of modern-day, Anglospherical Western Civilization in action, this time in the great victorious imposition of civilized values on the grubby little darkies in Iraq. From the Guardian:

The British government has ordered an urgent inquiry into the disappearance of an injured Iraqi child who has not been seen since being placed in the care of UK military medics in 2003.

In one of the most bewildering episodes of the Iraq occupation, Memmon Salam al-Maliki, an 11-year-old boy, disappeared within days of being taken to a British base after he was wounded while playing with unexploded munitions. Although his injuries appeared not to be life-threatening, his family have not seen him since.

The British authorities told Memmon’s father that they had sent his son to an American military hospital in Kuwait for further treatment, but have been unable to tell him its location, or provide information about his whereabouts or condition.The US authorities, however, insist they know nothing and say that in the absence of documentation they cannot even be sure he was transferred into their care.

… Memmon’s family, meanwhile, say they are deeply distraught, confused and angry. They say there was no reason to believe the boy’s injuries were life-threatening, and point out that he was still alive more than a week after the explosion. Until they have proof of his death, they say they must hold out hope that he could be alive.

Memmon was injured in April 2003, shortly after the invasion, while playing with abandoned, unexploded munitions near his Basra home. He suffered a serious eye injury and lost his left hand and several fingers from his right.He was picked up by a passing British convoy and taken to a nearby base for first aid. From there he was transferred to a British military field hospital at Shaibah. What happened next remains unclear.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Defence began to regard the family’s appeals as claims for compensation, rather than requests for information about the boy’s whereabouts. In its last communication with the family the MoD expressed its sympathy but denied all liability.

Ah yes, sympathy without liability: that’s the civilized way. In any case, what’s the big deal? It was just an 11-year-old object, wasn’t it? It shouldn’t have been messing with the holy hand grenades left behind by the defenders of Western Civilization when they were launching an illegal war of aggression on false pretenses (exactly as another stout defender of Western Civilization did 71 years ago this week). So it “disappeared.” So what? Maybe it wandered into the wrong “zone” somewhere. Maybe it needed to be killed. Or cast aside. Or just plunged through the labyrinthine bowels of the war machine, lost for seven years while its family lives day after day, year after year, in agony.

That’s just the price of civilization, you see. That’s what makes us good and great and godly and benign. Thirteen years old, eleven years old, three years old — they are the food and fuel of empire. It their blood — their extreme, hellish suffering — that makes us so special.

All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Are we witnessing the slow but certain death of cash in this generation? Is a truly cashless society on the horizon? Legislation currently pending in the Mexican legislature would ban a vast array of large cash transactions, but the truth is that Mexico is far from alone in trying to restrict cash. All over the world, governments are either placing stringent reporting requirements on large cash transactions or they are banning them altogether. We are being told that such measures are needed to battle illegal drug traffic, to catch tax evaders and to fight the war on terror. But are we rapidly getting to the point where we will have no financial privacy left whatsoever? Should we just accept that we have entered a time when the government will watch, track and trace all financial transactions? Is it inevitable that at some point in the near future ALL transactions will go through the banking system in one form or another (check, credit card, debit card, etc.)?

The truth is that we now live at a time when people who use large amounts of cash are looked upon with suspicion. In fact, authorities in many countries are taught that anyone involved in a large expenditure of cash is trying to hide something and is probably a criminal.

And yes, a lot of criminals do use cash, but millions upon millions of normal, law-abiding citizens simply prefer to use cash as well. Should we take the freedom to use cash away from the rest of us just because a small minority abuses it?

Unfortunately, the freedom to use cash is being slowly stripped away from us in an increasingly large number of countries.

In fact, as countries like Mexico “tighten the noose” around big-ticket cash purchases, our freedom to use cash is going to erode rather rapidly.

The following is a summary of some of the very tight restrictions being placed on large cash transactions around the globe right now….

Mexico

In Mexico, a bill before the legislature would completely ban the purchase of real estate in cash. In addition, the new law would ban anyone from spending more than MXN 100,000 (about $7,700) in cash on vehicles, boats, airplanes and luxury goods.

$7,700 is not a very high limit, and this legislation has some real teeth to it. Anyone violating this law would face up to 15 years in prison.

Greece

In Europe, some of the “austerity packages” being introduced in various European nations include very severe restrictions on the use of cash.

In Greece, all cash transactions above 1,500 euros are being banned starting next year. The following is a comment by Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou at a press conference discussing the new austerity measures as reported by Reuters….

“From 1. Jan. 2011, every transaction above 1,500 euros between natural persons and businesses, or between businesses, will not be considered legal if it is done in cash. Transactions will have to be done through debit or credit cards”

Italy

Even Italy has gotten into the act. As part of Italy’s new “austerity measures”, all cash transactions over 5,000 euros will be banned. It is said this is being done to crack down on tax evasion, but even if this is being done to take down the mafia this is still quite severe.

The United States

The U.S. government has not banned any large cash transactions, and hopefully it will not do so any time soon, but it sure has burdened large cash transactions with some heavy-duty reporting requirements.

For example, your bank is required to file a currency transaction report with the government for every deposit, withdrawal or exchange over $10,000 in cash.

Not only that, but if a bank “knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect” that a transaction involving at least $5,000 is “suspicious”, then another report must be filled out. This second type of report is known as a suspicious activity report, and it is also filed with the government.

If you’re in a business and receive more than $10,000 in cash from a single transaction, or from related transactions within a 12-month period, you have to file Form 8300 and report the buyer to the IRS. Don’t file, and you go to jail.

The IRS isnt kidding. I had a client who was a dealer in Corvette sports cars. He told me he didnt have time to file the forms. I told him several times to file. He thought he knew better. He went to jail. So did his children who were involved in the business.

This is very, very serious.

Just because someone forgets to file a certain form with the IRS, that person can go do serious jail time?

Yes.

According to Schnepper, quite a few Americans have already received very substantial sentences for this kind of thing….

In fiscal 2004, the Internal Revenue Service initiated 1,789 criminal investigations. There were 1,304 indictments and 687 convictions — and an 89.1% incarceration rate. The average sentence: 63 months.

In fiscal 2005, the IRS started 4,269 investigations, winning 2,406 indictments and 2,151 convictions and an 83% incarceration rate. Average sentence: 42 months.

The reality is that governments around the world are getting very, very sensitive about large amounts of cash and they are not messing around.

They don’t want all of us running around with big piles of cash. They want our money in the banks where they can track it, trace it and keep a close eye on it.

On the one hand, it is a good thing to catch criminals and terrorists, but on the other hand how much privacy and freedom are we willing to lose just so that we can feel a little safer?

And as cash becomes criminalized, are all of us going to be forced into the banking system whether we like it or not? If we cannot pay for things in cash, what other choices are we going to have?

The truth is that the more you think about this issue, the more disturbing it becomes.

Top US Senator Assassinated As Obama “Weather War” Plunges World Into Chaos

A new report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Russia’s foreign military intelligence directorate (GRU) states that a former top United States Senator, Ted Stevens, was assassinated this week after he attempted to gather evidence“proving” that President Obama has unleashed America’s devastating “weather weapons” against the World.

Upon Senator Stevens beginning his investigation into HAARP’s causing the crash of the Major Malone’s C-17, this report continues, he enlisted the aid of two powerful Washington power brokers, oil fortune heir William “Bill” Phillips Sr. and former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe.

Phillips was a longtime ally and supporter of Senator Stevens and as the heir to the Phillips Petroleum fortune is said in these reports to have in the past used his vast fortune to privately finance US intelligence “activities” to support his countries efforts to gain access to Global oil reserves.

Phillips had long warned Americans that the United States does not have any big oil companies. And it’s true: the largest American oil company, Exxon Mobil, is only the 14th largest in the World and is dwarfed by the really big oil companies — all owned by foreign governments or government- sponsored monopolies — that dominate the World’s oil supply.

With 94% of the World’s oil supply locked up by foreign governments, most of which are hostile to the United States, the relatively puny American oil companies do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly affect the market and help bring prices down. Thus, ExxonMobil, a “small” oil company, buys 90% of the crude oil that it refines for the US market from the big players, i.e., mostly-hostile foreign governments.

O’Keefe was the former administrator for the Untied States space agency NASA from 2001-2005, and whose reign included the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster that occurred on February 1, 2003, when upon its reentry into Earth’s atmosphere disintegrated over Texas, and which this report says O’Keefe “always” blamed on HAARP because at the exact time of this tragedy it had begun transmitting in what is called “deep sea communication mode”.

The various transmission ranges of HAARP are important to note, this report says, as “immediately prior” to Senator Stevens plane going down Russian satellites orbiting over the Arctic detected a “powerful”3.39 megahertz signal emanating from HAARP’s Copper Valley Area, Gakona, Alaska base and “directed” over the region this tragedy occurred in.

According to US news reports Phillips was killed in this crash [photo above] and O’Keefe is in hospital in critical condition, and with Senator Stevens being killed also means their investigation into HAARP has died along with them.

To the chaos erupting all over the World as the result of Obama’s allowing the use of these catastrophic HAARP “weather weapons” it can only be described as being “biblical” in the apocalyptic destruction it is causing, and which includes:

The catastrophic flooding in China and apocalyptic heat and fires in Russia put both of these US enemies in the position of having to ask the Americans for food aid as their summer crops are being destroyed on an unprecedented basis.

The epic flooding occurring in Pakistan is effectively destroying that Nations ability to both feed and defend itself and whom Obama has labeled as one of the Americans number one enemies.

The devastating heat occurring in the United States will enable Obama to push through the US Congress a “Global Warming” tax agenda many believe will be the “final nail” needed to destroy the United States as a major World Power.

And finally, though we do not know what the outcome of these momentous events will be, it is in our knowing to warn, that above all else, everyone reading these words should make the storing of food their top priority as this Summer of Woe will surely become a Winter of Discontent.